The Proosdij - The oldest stone house of The Netherlands

The Proosdij in Deventer is the oldest existing stone house in the Netherlands. Building history research has shown that the oldest core of the building dates from around the year 1130. The house is located on Sandrasteeg and Stromarkt, in the center of the old city of Deventer.

Construction began around 1130 by order of the provost Philip of Katzenelnbogen, who became bishop of Osnabrück in 1141.[1][2] The building is constructed from trachyte and tuff, types of stone that were imported from the Eifel. On the second floor there are the remains of three Romanesque windows on the gable end. Until the Reformation it was the residence of the provost of the chapter of the Lebuïnus Church. The provost was in charge of this college. On the ground floor was a chapel dedicated to Boniface, with reception rooms and living quarters located next to and above it. The building was part of the immunity, the church area, near the Lebuïnus Church.

After the Calvinist Maurice of Orange conquered the city from the Catholic Spaniards through the siege of Deventer in 1591, the deanery was withdrawn from the Catholic Church and fell into the hands of the States of Overijssel. The house was used for various other purposes and was finally sold in 1677 to Major Hendrik de Sandra, a high-ranking soldier from the Dutch army, who went to live there with his family. He also owned two neighboring properties; the name 'Sandrasteeg' is derived from these possessions.[3] At the same time, an area behind the Proosdij that had been part of the Bisschopshof was designated as a market square and has since been called Stromarkt.

The building stood empty in the 1970s and was then occupied as a squat for decades. It was completely restored in the 1990s and in 1994 the alley adjacent to the facade was covered over to protect the nine-hundred-year-old walls against further weather influences.